During this Thanksgiving season, we commemorate the coming together of English settlers and Native-Americans at Plymouth Colony, for what historians have dubbed “The First Thanksgiving.” This signal event brought the first Plymouth settlers and their Native-American neighbors together to feast, following a harrowing year that witnessed the deaths of half of the Pilgrim population during the winter of 1620-21. Yes, the survival of the remaining Pilgrims and the establishment of a viable colony is something to celebrate. Our national holiday, however, tends to overlook the momentous event that occurred on November 11, 1620: the signing of the Mayflower Compact.
Histories of the Mayflower and Plymouth Colony have portrayed the settlers who came to Plymouth as religious dissenters, Protestants who were seeking religious freedom in the New World. That is mostly true, but a number of the Mayflower passengers were not “Separatists” escaping religious persecution, but rather were “Strangers,” men who came to America seeking to make money through trade. Indeed, the establishment of Plymouth Colony was financed by a group of London “Merchant Adventurers” who were expecting the Mayflower’s passengers to send back goods (primarily furs) from which they would derive substantial profits. When the Mayflower dropped anchor near Cape Cod in November 1620, therefore, there were essentially two classes of people who, when they went ashore, would need to co-exist, and work together to fulfill their obligations to the Merchant Adventurers. The leaders of the Mayflower voyage therefore thought it wise to reach agreement over how exactly the new colony was going to be governed. What emerged was a written “Compact,” or agreement, by which the settlers agreed to be bound in the conduct of their affairs once on land.
The Mayflower Compact was a truly revolutionary document—the first English legal document that authorized the creation of a “civil Body Politick” not appointed by Parliament or the Crown, but by the people of Plymouth. The Colony’s political leaders would be empowered to regulate commerce, allocate land, resolve legal disputes, negotiate treaties, and otherwise oversee life in the Colony. This was unheard of!
The Compact was signed by 41 of the ship’s 101 passengers (some of whom would die that first winter). The signers included both Separatists and Strangers, as well as indentured servants (such as John Howland) and crew members. As was typical for those times, no women signed the document. Why did this diverse group of Mayflower passengers decide to do this, and what did the Compact say?
Why did the Mayflower passengers draw up the Compact? We have to step back in time for a moment. Before the Mayflower ever set sail for America, the Merchant Adventurers had to obtain a royal charter from the King authorizing the voyage, much as the Jamestown founders had obtained a charter for their voyage to Virginia back in 1606. The Plymouth Colony charter set forth where the settlers were to go, what lands they were authorized to settle, and the physical boundaries of the settlement itself. In the case of the Mayflower, the charter specified “Virginia,” which at that time included the areas now encompassed parts of New York, New Jersey, and the mid-Atlantic region. The passengers of the Mayflower therefore thought that was where they were headed. But when the Mayflower approached the coast of North America, they were far north of their intended destination, where they encountered violent storms that threw them off course. The Mayflower found itself being tossed and turned on the coast of New England. Facing extreme danger in continuing the voyage south towards “Virginia,” the Mayflower instead dropped anchor at Cape Cod. And it was there that the Mayflower passengers decided to settle. The problem, however, was that the Plymouth Colony’s charter did not authorize them to settle there! They were violating the terms of their charter, and in choosing to settle at Cape Cod, they were operating outside the laws of England. For that reason, the men of the Mayflower concluded that they needed a legally binding agreement amongst themselves, while they sought to obtain a new charter from the Crown that would cover the new territory they were about to occupy in New England.
It should be emphasized here that in 1620, the Mayflower passengers were subjects of King James, and answerable to the Crown, even though they were trying to escape the tyranny of the Church of England. This explains why the Compact begins with these words:
“In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, etc.”
Given this circumstance, the colonists felt they needed to live by some version of English law, and operate as best they could according to English customs, even though they were about to settle down in a wild frontier, with no semblance of civilization.
What did the Compact say? The Compact consisted of just two sentences, but the import of those few words was huge. Here is what the Pilgrims wrote:
Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.
Below this text were the signatures of the 41 men, beginning with the man who was to be the Colony’s Governor, John Carver. He died the following April, one of many of the original 101 passengers who arrived at Plymouth but did not survive the first winter. The second signer was William Bradford, who served as Governor off and on until 1657. It was William Bradford who wrote the definitive account of the voyage of the Mayflower, entitled “Of Plymouth Plantation.” Bradford’s first-person account also documented– often in minute detail — how the colonists tried to live by the terms of the Compact, and to establish a “civil Body Politick.” Bradford’s writings also reflect the many challenges the Colony ensured, and the political strife the Colony experienced in those first few decades.
Ten years after the landing of the Mayflower, Plymouth Colony faced one of its greatest challenges: a rival settlement, the Massachusetts Bay Colony, led by John Winthrop. The “Bay Colony” was mostly comprised of “Puritans,” who, like the Separatists, were religious dissenters, but who remained members of the Church of England and practiced a different form of Protestantism. Over time, it became apparent that the religious leaders of the Bay Colony were far less tolerant of those who did not abide by their strict orthodoxy, and who were quick to banish anyone who did not follow their strictures. Yet, the Bay Colony attracted thousands of immigrants, and by the 1690’s Plymouth Colony had seen its own population dwindle. In 1692, therefore, Plymouth Colony merged with the Bay Colony, and its “civil Body Politick” was no more.
The courage of our Pilgrim ancestors: I end this short summary of the Mayflower Compact with William Bradford’s account of the Mayflower voyage and the landing at Plymouth—an enduring portrayal of the courage and conviction of the 101 passengers who made their way to the New World, and settled Plymouth Colony. His words capture the spirit of freedom that defines our Nation’s history:
Here beginneth the chronicle of those memorable circumstances of the year 1620, as recorded by Nathaniel Morton, keeper of the records of Plymouth Colony, based on the account of William Bradford, sometime governor thereof:
So they left that goodly and pleasant city of Leiden, which had been their resting-place for above eleven years, but they knew that they were pilgrims and strangers here below, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to Heaven, their dearest country, where God hath prepared for them a city (Heb. XI, 16), and therein quieted their spirits.
When they came to Delfshaven they found the ship and all things ready, and such of their friends as could not come with them followed after them, and sundry came from Amsterdam to see them shipt, and to take their leaves of them. One night was spent with little sleep with the most, but with friendly entertainment and Christian discourse, and other real expressions of true Christian love.
The next day they went on board, and their friends with them, where truly doleful was the sight of that sad and mournful parting, to hear what sighs and sobs and prayers did sound amongst them; what tears did gush from every eye, and pithy speeches pierced each other’s heart, that sundry of the Dutch strangers that stood on the Key as spectators could not refrain from tears. But the tide (which stays for no man) calling them away, that were thus loath to depart, their Reverend Pastor, falling down on his knees, and they all with him, with watery cheeks commended them with the most fervent prayers unto the Lord and His blessing; and then with mutual embraces and many tears they took their leaves one of another, which proved to be the last leave to many of them.
Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts.
Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eyes (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.
If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.